CKEDIT ASSOCIATIONS 139 



the time for their ordinary redemption approaches, because 

 the chance of the bonds being drawn for redemption at par 

 increases in the same ratio as that in which the instalment for 

 the reduction of principal increases through the fixed half- 

 yearly contributions paid by the members for that purpose. 

 The bonds of the two Credit Associations for Small Landed 

 Properties, bearing a Government guarantee for the payment of 

 interest, are considered superior securities, and are generally 

 quoted 1 to 2 per cent, higher than the corresponding bonds 

 issued by the other Associations. A portion of the bonds of 

 these two Associations is issued also in sterling, the bonds 

 being payable in London. 



An official inquiry was made in 1909 as to the total mortgage 

 debt of properties in Denmark, i The total value of 169,500 

 agricultural holdings including live and dead stock and chattels 

 pledged as security for loans, was estimated at £184,000,000, 

 and the total encumbrances ^ at £78,700,000 or about 42} per 

 cent, of the total value. But some of those agricultural holdings, 

 such as entailed properties, and those belonging to the State, 

 municipalities, and pubHc bodies, were only encumbered to a 

 very slight extent ; while those belonging to the small holdings 

 created by the State under special laws were, under the pro- 

 visions of these laws, heavily encumbered. If these properties, 

 which are in an exceptional position with regard to the matter 

 under investigation, be left out, 164,000 landed properties 

 ^remain, for which the encumbrances amounted to 47 per cent., 

 which, therefore, is regarded as the more reliable figure for the 

 average encumbrance in 1909. About half of the total debt 

 is contracted through the Credit Associations. Without the 

 loans in question Danish agriculture would have been unable 

 to enlarge and rebuild farm buildings, to increase very largely 

 the number of live stock, to improve the dairy cattle so as to 

 yield twice or three times as much as before, to carry out 

 permanent improvement by draining and marling, to accom- 

 modate the farming system to the altered condition in the world's 

 markets, to buy farm implements and machinery and to build 



1 Statistisk Tabelvoerk, 5 Roekke, Litra E, No. 9. See also Statistisk Aarbog. 

 I9I6, Table 94. 



' Including a relatively quite small amount of loans from banks, capitalised 

 servitudes and similar charges. 



